‘The Mandalorian’ is the Way of Star Wars

The Disney+ show manages to out-Star Wars the movies…

We’re three episodes into the second season of The Mandalorian and it’s great. Really good. The first season was fantastic, and the second is shaping up to be better. In fact, it’s so good that something lingers at the back of my head. Something a bit terrifying: I think The Mandalorian is better at Star Wars than the most recent Star Wars movies are.

I think such a statement will be both controversial to some and entirely not controversial to others. To my eye and taste, The Mandalorian is just a better distillation of what Star Wars is meant to be versus the most recent trilogy (and, of course, the prequel trilogy before that). Said another way: The Mandalorian feels like the true successor to the original Star Wars trilogy.

The prequels were a mess. The sequels were a whiplash-inducing affair of varying quality. I liked them, but I didn’t love them. Certainly not in the way that I loved the original Star Wars trilogy. And now not even in a way that I love The Mandalorian.

I do think part of it is the glitz and glam of the prequels and sequels. CGI aside, they just feel like big Hollywood spectacles because they were meant to be big Hollywood spectacles. The Mandalorian has plenty of CGI (very good both by regular and of course “television” standards), but it also seemingly has more practical effects as well. It just looks more like the original trilogy in ways big and small.

It also, seemingly, has more heart than the sequels do (and certainly the prequels, which were Anakin Skywalker-levels devoid of emotion). Part of this may be a function of the television/streaming style of storytelling — connections built over many hours — but it sure feels like it goes deeper than that. We care about these characters and story lines because the people crafting such narratives care about them and don’t need to tie some massive bow around perhaps the biggest present this world has ever seen.

The show is also a constantly evolving hint at a galaxy beyond. You got this sense with the original trilogy as well, but the sequels felt almost small in this regard.

Anyway, just a thought I’ve been having while watching The Mandalorian these past few weeks. I think the show outshines the movies because it’s actually better than the prequels and sequels. And more in the vein of the original Star Wars. I hope they can keep that up.